Whet your appetite

Restaurateur Manish Goyal is redefining the food scene in Chandigarh with his eateries.

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Arvind Chhabra

July 5, 2010

ISSUE DATE: July 5, 2010

UPDATED: July 8, 2010 11:46 IST

For Goyal teamwork is essential and so is the focus on quality and service

In business, you win some, you lose some. And it's essential to learn from the losses to be a successful entrepreneur later on. Manish Goyal, too, learnt it the hard way. His business venture, a franchisee of an Italian restaurant, Slice of Italy, didn't taste success. But not one to mope about the loss, Goyal, along with his partners got crucial business lessons. "We learnt to stick to our quality parameters and good service. Don't be overawed by competition. Compete with yourself," says the 35-year-old.

He is now one of the rapidly emerging restaurateurs of the town. In fact, he almost dominates the market in the fine dining genre. He owns (in partnership with others) Sagar Ratna in sectors 17 and 35, Swagath, S-Lounge and Mainland China, all of which are in sector 26.

Goyal's father is a steel industrialist in Mandi Gobindgarh and the family has never been in the food business. He explains this change of line: "I am a foodie and try out different places. My partner and friend, Ranjan Basu, egged me on as he too, was keen on setting up an eatery. This is one field that offers you a lot of customer interaction and scope to experiment."

Having done his schooling from St. Joseph, Goyal joined his family business after completing his high school. He simultaneously did his B.Com. from Panjab University. Goyal, at an impressionable age while in college thought like his peers about wanting to do something unconventional.

What helped was the fact that they had a property. So the next target was identifying the right chain of restaurants and then getting their franchises. With Sagar Ratna, Goyal and his partners can be credited with getting a south Indian fine dining to Chandigarh, which previously only had Indian Coffee House. Then came Swagath, a specialised zone for south Indian coastal non-vegetarian delicacies.

Chandigarh, dismissed as a sleepy town till then and associated with Punjabi food only, turned a shade cosmopolitan with their endeavour. Also, with IT companies and other industry setting up their base here, the city was redefining itself. "You wouldn't know how the demand for that thing is till you create a supply for it," says Goyal. True, the demand was there in abundance as he later found out.

"I had some space in the building where we had opened up Swagath. While it catered to families, we thought why not provide this extra place to professionals who can come in with their peers for a drink. I was thinking of a casual lounge," says Goyal. Hence, S-Lounge shaped up. The latest addition to their list of ventures is Mainland China, the largest chain of fine dining Oriental restaurants in the country.

About his penchant for franchises, he says, "The franchisers have been a great support, always giving crucial inputs and tips and it's together that we have achieved success.More than a franchiser-franchisee relationship, we work like a team."

"The food scene here is going to be bigger and better as big chains will expand into the city," predicts Goyal. "We want to come up with world cuisine next," he says, and then keeps mum preferring to keep other plans under the wraps as of now.